Presentation and Graphics; An appreciation for sprite sheets

This week's main activity was replacing the little blue and green lurchers that have been standing in for the UndeAAd, and replacing the green target that was Static!

That's the last we'll see of this little fellow.

I started with the Generator's animations, and they've made little cameos in previous devLogs, but now let's take a proper look.

       

This looping animation for the Generator plays as long as the Generator's life total isn't 0. Once the Generator's life total reaches zero, there's no power left and of course, the generator changes to an animation that shows just that. Keeping in mind that the animation doesn't loop for the Generator running out of power.  There will be a separate animation in the UI to keep track of health, but that will be covered in the UI devLog (Which is up next!).

           

The UndeAAd doesn't look as... Cartoony or Zombie-like as originally intended, but I feel like this simplified version suits the concept of a security desk interface with sensors tracking things, instead of cameras watching everything. I made that revision to the concept simply because the sprites I wanted were a bit beyond my skill level for the time available. The same goes for Static, who we'll be meeting in a moment. With the UndeAAd sprites above, there are two states that the UndeAAd will be in; Neutral, and Absorbing. The Absorbing animation will play each time an UndeAAd manages to absorb energy from the Generator, lowing the Generator's life total.

       

Static has two states that everything branches off of; a Neutral state (On the left, above) and a Hungry state (On the right, above). The Neutral state is what is shown when generally moving around and things are going well. The Hungry state is when Static is right next to an enemy. We'll explore the transitions for the Hungry state next.

When Static lands on top of an enemy, the Hungry state changes to his Eating state, as the UndeAAd is destroyed! When this animation is triggered, the player's Score will increase too. That will be elaborated on in the next devLog. I believe this simple loop gets across what Static is doing to those UndeAAd.

The last two animations are for the 'Alarmed' and 'Shutdown' states. The 'Alarmed' state will trigger when there is an UndeAAd next to the Generator; a clue that it it might be time to hot-foot it back to the Generator and destroy the UndeAAd near it! I felt that big red '!!!' would be a good indicator that something was wrong.

The last animation 'Shutdown' , the heart being broken and Static's screen going blank, won't loop when it's triggered. That animation will play when the Generator's life total reaches zero and will signify a game over.

Over all, the graphics and animation have come a long way from their beginnings as targets and blue/green lurchers, but not as far as I was hoping in the time frame. I would've liked significantly more time to work on the graphics, but time didn't allow for it, and I had to dramatically simplify the graphics to make up for it. I've certainly come to appreciate just how difficult it is to manage time vs quality when it comes to producing pixel art and animating it on a strict time limit.

Next DevLog; UI and Polish!